Dosty Glory reviews Secret of Kells

The Secret of Kells

Kells is a captivating study of the pursuit and preservation of knowledge.  All of this is personified in a mystical book that ancient monks have been working on for untold years.  The book is danger from two fronts: first, from the encroaching Vikings who seek to decimate the monk population; second, from the paranoia of this invasion that places more emphasis on protecting their treasures than continuing to add to them.

            The fable is grounded in a simple and highly effective foundation.  It begins with the central character, a young man named Brandon, with the set of monks who are responsible for writing the village’s books. Their places of origin are not specified but it seems the monks are meant to represent various cultures around the world, giving an interesting alternative to the more likely history of knowledge being scribed and collected by a narrow group of white men.  While these men are forced to divert their energy into fortifying the village, Brandon goes on a series of quests into the outside world, looking for visions to add to the legendary book.  In the course of these adventures he melds Christian and pagan philosophies without going in-depth into either, focusing instead on the wonders of the world outside the walls and a friendship with a faerie girl.

            Though the men are dressed as monks and there are some Christian symbols exhibited, along with an understanding of what monks used to get up to before the printing press, there is no mention in the book of religious specifics.  The story instead relies on the lines from Genesis stating, “The word is God,” or some more biblically accurate permutation.  Without explicitly saying “God,” it is clear that these men worship “the word,” truth, and knowledge.  Because of this reverence, it is easier to reconcile Brandon’s participation with “pagan” mythologies.  While in the forest, he must follow the truth of the forest, though there are some things he had previously believed to only be children’s stories. 

            Brandon’s guide in the forest is a girl he identifies as a faerie.  Her true identity or origin is never revealed and it need not be, since she exists mainly as juxtaposition to the exercise of truth Brandon had previously been exposed to.  Where the Abbott and the other monks see knowledge as a matter of record, Ashley is knowledge in action.  The comparison immediately brought to mind the difference between learning about life from a self-help book, and learning it from a work of literature.  Knowledge, truth, or whatever you want to call it, isn’t clear and stagnant; it is swirling and undefined, only to be caught through catching.  It is our task to understand Ashley as a concept, not as a list of characteristics.  The she was drawn, very different from all of the other characters, adds a great deal to her illustration of difference.  Her only flaw is that she was given the traits of a sassyyoung girl, much too modern for the rest of the film. She was even wearing what looked like bell-bottom pants.  This modernization didn’t serve any purpose that I could see, and disrupted the established flow of the film in a negative way. Thankfully, her part was small enough that it didn’t mar the film too much, and there were plenty of other, non-sassy scenes, that balanced out the sore points.

            The visual aspect of this film is stunning, and certainly the part that will be most enthusiastically noted.  This element, however, does not always work in support of the film as a whole.  Some viewers may be surprised to note that there was once a time when films could be both visually breathtaking and narrative wonders, with one not making sacrifices to the other. Though every image in this film is very carefully created, often times it more resembles comic book panels set in motion than a feature film.  This is an interesting stylistic effect, but one that I personally identify with a misunderstanding of the medium’s fundamentals as opposed to particular ingenuity.  Film is about motion, not only of a plot or within a specific frame, but progressing from one shot to the next with fluidity not experienced in a snapshot slideshow or some similar.  There were some points in the film where action within a frame slowed down and slaughtered the established tension of the action before the appropriate resolution, giving the overall piece a jarring and disjointed feel, separating the viewer from the boiling passions of the characters involved by making it difficult to maintain their energy.   

            All in all, this film was a gallant effort to tackle an enormous subject in an experimental fashion.  Whatever its flaws, it is well worth seeing, with themes that deserve to be trotted out more often.

-Dosty Glory 2010